Since ancient times, garlic has been consumed as a seasoning or spice. In recent years, garlic has been found to contain a variety of physiologically active components, and therefore, garlic is widely used as a health food and a drug.
However, garlic contains an odor precursor which is easily converted to an odorous component such as allicin or diallyl disulfide, to thereby impart an unfavorable taste which many people dislike. Therefore, there have been developed methods for producing odorless garlic through heat treatment, as disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) Nos. 59-216565 and 4-12604. However, there still remain problems, such as generation of a garlic odor after eating.
Meanwhile, standardizing a method for processing garlic is important in view that the components or physiological activity of garlic depends on differences in processing conditions (Emiko MOTIZUKI: FOODS & FOOD INGREDIENTS JOURNAL OF JAPAN 164, 36-45, 1995).
Apart from garlic, there has conventionally been employed a method of fermentation making use of Aspergillus and/or Monascus for producing miso, soy sauce, sake, etc. The safety of Aspergillus and that of Monascus have already been substantiated on the basis of long-term dietary experience, and a variety of physiological effects provided by Aspergillus and/or Monascus are reported (e.g., anti-oxidation activity (Naohiko YAMAGUCHI: Nihon Shokuhin Kogyo Gakkaishi 26, 71-75, 1979) and inhibitory activity against angiotensin I converting enzyme (Takeyori TERANAKA, et al.: Nihon Nogeikagakukaishi 69, 1163-1169, 1995) provided by Aspergillus; or activity for reduction of cholesterol, antihypertension, etc. provided by Monascus).
Thus, the present inventors considered that a composition having no garlic odor and being useful as a drug or a food could be produced by fermenting garlic by use of Aspergillus and/or Monascus. According to the investigation thereon, garlic could not be fermented by use of Aspergillus and/or Monascus, since garlic per se exhibits antibacterial activity. Although Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 48-52995 discloses a process whereby a small amount of garlic is added during a production step of wine, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 53-26361 discloses a process whereby fermentation is induced by addition of a large amount of sugar to a small amount of garlic, no process of fermentation employing garlic as a predominant source has been reported.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a composition useful as a drug or food and produced by fermenting garlic by use of Aspergillus and/or Monascus to thereby remove a characteristic garlic odor.